My Politics

By Matthew W. Pittaway, June 2005

I am a pro-marijuana activist. I am active in the legalization of marijuana for many reasons both simple and complex, both spiritual and economical.
When I was a young man escaping from an abusive home in the 1970's I was introduced to marijuana or "pot" by a friend.
I found the "high" to be enjoyable and I worried less about things out of my control such as my parent's actions.
It did not make me violent or a bad driver and if I couldn't get any it had no withdrawal symptoms. The only bad side effect
I ever noticed was in my school work. Any serious scientific or mathematical thought was pretty much out of the question.

When I became a Christian in 1978 I did not immediately stop smoking pot. I walked among my hippy friends and smoked with them preaching Jesus to them.
However after a year or so I decided it would please YahShua (Jesus) to stop, so I did. It was that easy.

I was completely 'drug free' for many years from 1979 - 2003. Actually I had 2 very bad habits I am working on now to quit: Caffeine and Sugar. Caffeine
is more addictive than pot and has harsh withdrawal symptoms. Sugar is the most insidious and I still have not been able to completley overcome this.
I always had wine or beer in the house but have never enjoyed the alcohol "buzz" per say and so usually only drink occasionally in the evening as it usually makes me sleepy.
I use benadryl when my allergies are bad or Tylenol when I have a headache. I talked with a grandma in church Sunday who told me she takes 2 benadryl every night before bed. hmmmmmmmm.....

I was in the shower one day in 1988 when the Lord clearly spoke to me saying "marijuana should be legalized". I was a right winged conservative Christian preacher and so
this statement caught me totally off guard. I asked the Lord "Is that you Lord??" and was amazed.
I mentioned it to my wife and we both completely forgot about it.

In 2003 I had been struggling to find my place in U.S. religion after Bible college for many years. I decided to repent of following men and religion and decided to completely follow the Lord and seek truth from scriptures and the world around me.
I limit my intake of 'preaching' to a very few fine men and women of God whom I have found faithful over the years to hear accurately from God's Spirit and scripture.
At this time I was also in the middle of doing a lot of medical research on my son Justin who was a heart transplant recipient and struggled with the many toxic drugs he was forced to take.
I began to find medical research that indicated medical marijuana could help my son. He had no appetite, and suffered from asthma, both issues helped by the active ingredients in pot.
Some of my research even indicated that derivitives of the plant could help my son completely get off the harsh drugs he was forced to take IF research was legal.

The biggest travesty is that the DEA will not move pot out of schedule I so that it can be researched fully for FDA approval.
There are so many potential uses for cannabis extracts that would knock other drugs off the shelf that the big drug corporations are NOT WILLING that this plant be made accessible to the average poor slob like you and I.

There are so many potential uses for cannabis extracts that...big drug corporations are NOT WILLING that this plant be made accessible...

It was as if I had uncovered a burried treasure. The many benefits of pot not only medicinally but as a plant for fibre and seeds for edible protein and bio-fuel oil made my head spin.
I began to uncover political agendi dating back to the 1930's which showed me how important this issue is to our nation right now in this time.

So now 27 years later I would again try pot. It was as pleasant as it was when I was younger, but having a lot more responsibility I found I could only smoke it when I was home
after work or on weekends when I had nothing important to do to save the world. I found I could do my work and then when I was done on the weekend I could relax and enjoy a smoke without hindering God's will in my life or my abilities as a parent and husband.
In fact I was more loving and found it easier to spend quality time with my kids when I was not so stressed and feeling good.

Some pot smokers say I am a lightweight. I do not want to smoke joint after joint to see how high I can get. I don't even like going to parties. I never smoke with minors.
In fact I smoke pretty rarely any more as I have a lot of hobbies and projects that are more fun for me than getting hi.
For my accusers, I say that pot is a useful substance that should be made available for doctors and researchers to study. This is all I am asking! Right now the big money politicians and corporations have kept it away from We the People for their own personal gain.
This must be stopped.
However for me the issue is not how much I or someone else smokes, it is the freedom to grow and smoke what ever an adult person wants on their land that has become my fight.
I am first and foremost a minister of the Gospel. This is good news and it is truth. pot is a plant, an herb bearing seeds, that God put here saying it was good in Genesis. Doctors and Nurses and researchers the world over including most in the U.S.A. say it is good and should be legal.
Can we really be so naive as to think the only reason it is illegal is that it makes people feel good?

One by one I researched the objections and found them completely false:

1) It is a gateway drug; it leads to cocain or worse drugs.
2) It is smoking and as such will give you cancer.
3) It is hard to quit (withdrawals).
4) It makes you a dangerous driver.
5) It makes college kids stupid and they will fail school.
Yes these are all false. In fact the Nixon administration in trying to save face from the Vietnam Fiasco did an exhaustive research on pot and found it to be harmless!! They quickly destroyed these test results
for political reasons since the average voter believed it was bad.

Read some facts about this amazing plant and remember this: where drugs have been legalized, the percentage of the population using them has NOT increased
over time. In fact it has decreased after an initial small "party down" increase use period.

So to my religious friends who say "You can't smoke pot if you're a Christian" I say this:
Was George Washington saved? Did Jesus say you can't smoke and be saved? Did any apostle (Paul, Peter, James, John) ever say you can't?
Let us judge righteous judgment. Do you drink coffee or coke? (Yes Mountain Dew has caffeine)
Caffeine is 2-3 times more addictive and harder to quit than pot. Tobacco is so addictive and
harmful it ranks between coacain and heroin on drug charts. Look at the facts on this graph:Various drugs' addictive properties

Also to my surprise I found many Hebrew Rabbi's agree that the Kaneh Besom in scripture used in Moses' Holy Oil was in fact Cannabis:

Cannabis in the Bible
The Scythians grew Cannabis for rope and it was used in the building of Solomon's temple; think of the grim reaper with a 'scythe' in his hand.
The flowers were used for millenia as medicines, and in the Holy Oil, so this is a freedom of privacy issue AND a freedom of religion issue.
Not to mention the freedom to prosper since the flowers, seeds, fibers and husk are all good for bio-fuel oil, edible protein,
clothing and rope or items like backpacks, et al. Henry Ford even made a car body out of Cannabis to show it could be a great crop for industry!!
It has consistently been the rich oil and war mongers like the cotton masters and now the Bush clan who have used politics to keep
the little people on the bottom of the pyramid from prospering with this simple home grown plant.

Even more hypocritical are the local enforcement laws. If you go to the dealer and cop sacks every day (supporting a criminal) you are left alone, but
just try and grow a few plants and watch the Police State come down on you like you were some kind of ter-or-st.

P,
If you can drink coffee and be saved I can drink my herb tea.
Read Romans 14 before you judge another brother's liberty. If we don't go to bat for truth and the medical marijuana movement
we will have nothing to say when the same fascists come to our door and take away our bibles. They did it in 1940's Germany and they are doing the exact same thing
here in the USA as you read this. Wake up and repent Christian! God is not on the right or the left; He is Truth.

So finally I say there is nothing which enters a man that can defile him, it is what comes out of his mouth; his words, his thoughts and actions.
I do not say drugs are the answer to anything except maybe a temporary health problem. I am saying we need to know and seek the balanced truth and stop buying into
political lies dealt to us on our televisions by rich men who are of this world and work for the God of this world, Satan.
We need to dig out the truth and stand by it no matter what anybody says or thinks. This is what Jesus did.
This is what the apostles did. This is what you and I should be free to do, if America is really a free country anymore.

Click this link for an amazing article explaining the history behind the prohibition against this amazing herb God gave for medicine and food: